Ways and Means
by LeSylph
Summary: They were one and the same, right? But Helo should have known.


So my friend was reading this book on Battlestar Galactica and it posed a question along these lines: Would it be considered cheating if Helo slept with Boomer when she and Athena possess all of the same features. Naturally I had to write a one-shot about it.

Disclaimer: I don't own BSG or any of the characters

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Her fingers ran along his bare arms, up his neck and face, and into his hair. Leaning down, she whispered, "Did you really think that I would have come back for you?" She laughed as he propped himself up on his elbows so quickly that it caused her to move to a sitting position. "Did you?"

"Frak," he roughly started to shove her off, "Get the hell away from me."

The same fingers that had been so gentle moments ago now wrapped around his neck, pushing his head back down towards the pillows. "What's the matter Helo? You wanted to frak me before didn't you? While I was with the Chief? But you never said anything. So how the frak was I supposed to know to come back for you." Her eyes were cold, piercing. "How convenient was it for you to replace me, huh? But did you really think that I could have loved you?"

"Boomer," his voice was calm. He had always been so calm. And now it infuriated her. As her fingers grew tighter he grabbed her wrists. She let him push her away. "Where's Sharon?"

"I am Sharon." It was a statement. A plain truth. And yet it was twisted and painful, hurting them both.

He tried again, "Where's my wife?"

Boomer smirked, "On her way here."

Shoving her completely off of him and onto the floor, Helo started to grab for his clothes. "Stay the frak away from me." His voice was shaking.

"Why? It isn't like you did anything wrong. Athena and I, we're the same aren't we? You couldn't tell could you…same body, same mind." She leaned up to kiss him and he pulled away.

"No, you aren't the same. Sharon, Athena, would never have done something like this. I never thought that you would do something like this either." He was staring at her, his eyes seeing her, really and truly seeing her as if for the first time. And she found it disconcerting. Helo had been _her_ friend, hell, he had been her _best_ friend. Sure she'd had Starbuck, but Starbuck had always reminded her of a stray cat she'd picked up one time. There for you one minute and claws coming out the next. Though come to think of it there had been no stray cat, it had been a created memory. Some frakking created memory. But her friendship with Helo had been real, had been tangible, had been there at her fingertips.

Her friendship with Helo had been everything. How the frak had she come to this. She found herself looking at Helo, looking at his anger and his disappointment. And suddenly she felt disappointed in herself. Angry at herself. Angry at him. She had come here out of anger.

"Helo…frak…what the hell am I doing?" she was looking for answers now, he always had the answers.

Except this time the answer wasn't something she wanted to hear. "You know what I think?" his eyes were boring into hers, "I think that you're just so frakking angry that Athena got the life that you wanted that you had to frak it up. Am I right? But you can't blame it on her, can you. She chose to free herself, she chose her path, you could have chosen yours."

"How could I choose Helo? How could I possibly choose when I didn't know I was a frakking cylon!" the words spilled from her mouth and she found herself wanting to throw something against the wall. Wanted to feel something break. Wanted to break. She wanted to break. Was ready to break. "You were my family, Helo. You were the one person in my life that I could always count on to be there and it was like you traded me in for a different…me."

He was staring at her now, "What was I supposed to do Boomer? Huh? I loved you alright? But you were with the Chief. And then you showed up on Caprica when I thought for sure I was a dead man, and you saved me. And you told me that you loved me and suddenly, suddenly it was as if I had everything I ever wanted. Caprica was destroyed and it was like it didn't matter because you were there with me and you loved me. Then suddenly you were a cylon and you weren't you. It was a 'copy'. The thing is Boomer…I fell in love with her…and I came to realize that she wasn't you. You may have the same body, the same memories…yes, I look at her and I'm looking at you. And I think of our memories but the thing is Athena and I made our own memories. I don't know what else to say, Sharon. I don't."

She didn't know what to say either. She could see it in his eyes, could see the pain that he felt. This situation didn't make any sense at all and the more she thought about it, the more the reason for her being here eluded her. She couldn't seem to remember what she had hoped to get out of this. To prove a point, maybe? To prove that she and Athena were one and the same though she knew that it wasn't true? She didn't know anymore. All that she knew was that it had been a mistake.

By this time Helo had managed to finish dressing and she began to do the same. Athena was coming and she knew how the other was going to react. Because if she had walked in on the Chief and another eight together…the other eight would have been frakked. "Helo…this was…I'm sorry."

Wincing as the door opened behind her, she tugged on her pants. Too bad her shirt was still missing.

"What the frak is going on?" Athena looked from Helo to Boomer, her eyes narrowing at the state of half undress that her counterpart was in. "I swear to the gods that if you took advantage of my husband, I will personally-"

"Gods?" Boomer was smirking, "There is only one God, Athena. Or have you forgotten?"

Athena's jaw clenched, "No, I haven't. Now answer me. What the hell are you doing here?"

There it was, the question that she no longer knew the answer to. So she answered truthfully, "I don't know." Boomer was glad that Athena wasn't wearing a sidearm because she was sure that if Athena had, well, she'd be in a goo bath in a matter of seconds. She _knew_. "It isn't what it looks like." Oh. God. She had not just said that.

As predicted, Athena leapt on her blunder, "Isn't what it looks like? What it looks like is you were with _my_ husband."

"I…it was mistake, I never should have…" She stood awkwardly as Athena's attention suddenly turned.

"How. Could. You." Athena's focus was very suddenly on Helo. "You should have known." It came out almost as a hiss of pain, of betrayal. "You really couldn't tell?" Her voice was weighted and Boomer could almost feel her heart getting ready to break. She knew what Athena was asking. She was asking for the truth when in reality all she wanted was to hear a lie.

They both knew that Helo wasn't going to tell her what she wanted to hear. Because he was Helo, and Helo would never lie. Especially not to his wife. "I'm sorry Sharon."

Athena's answer was practically dripping venom. "I'm sorry too." Her fingers hit the comm button, "Lt. Agathon to Admiral Adama."

"Adama here."

"We need a security team sent to my quarters."

"May I ask why, Lt.?"

She was silent for a moment and Boomer knew what she wanted to say. What Athena wanted to say was, _Boomer's back and I found her frakking my husband._ Instead she answered, "There's been a…breach."

"Understood, Adama out."

Athena's attention was back on Boomer and Boomer felt the words start pouring out of her mouth. "I was angry. I wanted revenge, it was wrong. I never should have…"

"You're right, you shouldn't have. Couldn't let him go, could you? Couldn't just let us be, you just had to come and make things so frakking difficult because you couldn't stand for me to be here. Couldn't stand to see what you could have had."

"You're wrong, this isn't what I wanted. I wanted a life with the Chief, we were going to have children. _I_ was going to have children."

Athena tossed Boomer's shirt to her. "Then why were you in here?"

Looking into Athena's eyes, her own eyes, suddenly gave her the answer. She shook her head and moaned. "No…no, no, no."

Face impassive, Athena spoke the words aloud. "You saw what could have been if you had gone back. All you had to do was go back. And you realized that you wanted it, wanted me to be you and you to be me."

The words were confusing and Helo looked it, but Boomer knew exactly what Athena was talking about. "I'm sorry."

"It's too late for that, isn't it?" The door had opened behind her and Athena turned towards the marines, their guns trained on both of them. "I'm Lt. Agathon," she held up her dogtags, "Get her out of here." She motioned towards Boomer.

Adama stepped through as two marines cuffed her. "What's going on here?"

Athena looked towards Helo, daring him to say something. When he didn't, she cleared her throat. "I came back to my quarters to find Helo with Boomer."

The admiral looked from Athena to Boomer to Helo. This was a mess. "Get that thi—" He glanced at Athena as if realizing that insulting one meant insulting the other, "Take Boomer to the brig."

Rubbing his face, Adama looked at the two Agathon's sitting in front of him. Athena was fuming and though Helo's face was masked, he knew the young man was highly upset. This meeting was going to make one hell of an entry in the log. "Start from the beginning."

Turning her withering glare on Helo, they both waited for him to speak. Which he did, albeit reluctantly.

"I came back to the quarters, Sharon…Boomer was in there." He glanced at his wife, "She was Sharon. I know that I should have known. But…I couldn't. Not when she was acting like...I figured it out but it wasn't until…" He didn't know how to explain it, couldn't even hope to try to explain it.

"You couldn't tell?" Athena's voice was strained and Adama knew that she was one second away from storming out. Since when did being an admiral include marriage counseling.

"She looked exactly like you, she acted exactly like you, she spoke exactly like you." Helo managed to sound both exasperated and apologetic.

"She is not me. I am not her. I thought we'd established this a long time ago." Sharon stood, "I'm finished with this."

Adama watched the inevitable as Sharon, as he had predicted earlier, stormed out of the room. Helo slumped in the chair. "I should have known." His words were soft and though he knew it wasn't a question, Adama answered anyways.

"You couldn't have known. Not if Boomer didn't want you to. You're dismissed."

Lying in bed that night with Sharon, his Sharon, he thought about what Starbuck had said earlier to him. That is after she had finished first expressing her anger over Boomer managing to slip back on Galactica and at his stupidity. And after her laughter. After she had finished with that she had regarded him with a serious look and then said, "Is it considered cheating when they share the same body and mind?"

Turning his head to look at Sharon, his Sharon, he knew the answer. Yes, it was.

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Reviews and critiques welcome.


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